With the theme “Vietnamese Culinary Exchange”, the Hue – Culinary Capital festival is not only an activity within the framework of the Visit Viet Nam Year and Hue Festival 2025 but also an opportunity to showcase, promote, and elevate the culinary culture.

Many distinctive dishes will be introduced at the Hue – Culinary Capital Festival

Many distinctive activities

The Hue – Culinary Capital festival is one of the highlights of tourism. It takes place during the April 30 – May 1 holiday period and lasts 4 days from April 29 to May 2. Located at Thuong Bac Park (Hue City), the festival is expected to feature 60 food exhibition booths and attract more than 20,000 participants.

The Hue – Culinary Capital Festival 2025 has been meticulously planned, becoming a notable activity within the framework of the Visit Viet Nam Year and Hue Festival 2025. According to a representative of the Department of Tourism, alongside artistic programs featuring many bands and young singers from Hue City, numerous special activities will serve residents and tourists at the festival, such as displaying, introducing, and selling culinary products at booths, 3D food exhibition using AR technology, culinary demonstrations and experiences…

The cuisine at the booths will be rich and diverse. Besides the royal cuisine zone, the organizing committee will also arrange areas for showcasing and introducing vegetarian cuisine, ethnic cuisine, folk cuisine, and street food.

Hue vegetarian cuisine. Photo: Tinh Garden

One of the most anticipated activities is the culinary demonstration and experience. With the talented hands of artisans, the distinctive features of royal cuisine will be introduced to tourists through the “Hue Royal Salt Rice”, the exhibition of fruit carving art – “The Essence of Royal Fruit Carving”. Cultural exchanges between regions will showcase distinctive culinary features through demonstrations and experiences of traditional folk cuisine from all three regions of Vietnam.

According to the organizing committee, the festival will feature culinary showcase evenings highlighting various traditional specialties, including “Salt Rice – From Folk Origins to Royal Court,” “The Essence of Royal Fruit Carving”, “Van Cu – The Essence of Noodle Craftsmanship”, and regional cuisine demonstrations featuring “The Essence of Traditional Mi Quang”. “What makes it easy for many people to distinguish Hue royal culinary art from other cuisines both domestically and internationally is the beautiful carvings on fruits and vegetables. A second difference is that the carvings follow only two schools: One is mimicking flowers, and the other is animals representing royalty, such as dragons, peacocks, phoenixes, unicorns… The organizing committee plans to showcase a giant fruit and vegetable carving work with dimensions of 1.2m x 3m to be displayed at the event,” added a representative of the organizing committee when introducing “The Essence of Royal Fruit Carving”.

Elevating culinary culture

Vietnam has a rich and attractive culinary tradition. In particular, many people immediately think of Hue cuisine when mentioning Vietnamese cuisine. With two main streams – royal cuisine and folk cuisine, Hue cuisine has built its brand. And events like the Hue – Culinary Capital festival are opportunities for Hue to tell its distinctive culinary story, spreading the culinary values that are the crystallization of an entire long-standing and rich traditional culture.

Mr. Le Tan, Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Culinary Culture Association, said that the distinction of Hue cuisine is not simply the perception and enjoyment of the flavor of the dish, but also appreciating the spiritual values subtly hidden in each ingredient, spice, and recipe. Through culinary stories, Hue cuisine can be elevated and tourism promotion values enhanced. Therefore, successfully organizing culinary events contributes to elevating Vietnamese culinary culture in general and the ancient capital’s cuisine in particular.

Recently, the tourism industry has focused on 3D digitization of cuisine to preserve Hue’s typical dishes on a 3D technology platform, while developing and promoting Hue’s culinary culture to a wide audience both domestically and internationally. This culinary festival will feature a 3D food exhibition, with 3D images of dishes, information about origins, and basic recipes, providing residents and tourists with a clearer, more interesting, and distinctive view of Hue cuisine.

The organizing committee has designed immersive experiences for both locals and visitors through interactive activities, check-ins, and stylized photo opportunities at 3D Logo photobooths. Participants who share these special moments on social media not only help promote the event but also receive complimentary vouchers to sample dishes in both the royal and folk cuisine areas. These activities also promote the role of residents and tourists in spreading distinctive culinary culture.

Ms. Tran Thi Hoai Tram, Tourism Department Director, said that the ancient capital’s tourism industry was focusing on building and effectively exploiting products and services around distinctive brands, including the “Hue – Culinary Capital” brand. As part of Visit Viet Nam Year – Hue 2025, alongside activities, events, cultural industry products, and artistic programs, there will also be culinary demonstrations, experiences, chef competitions… Hue will also develop unique tourism products such as heritage tours, culinary tours, cultural experience tours… helping tourists explore history and culture more deeply and creating distinctive highlights compared to other destinations.

Source: Hue News – news.baothuathienhue.vn- Apr 26, 2025